Motor Upgrades

Motor Upgrades:

Pink Triangle was the first company to promote the use of the DC motor in high end turntables.
Indeed in defending its use against the AC motor fraternity, it went completely against the tide taking an inordinate amount of flack along the way.
Yet today, the DC motor has gained acceptance and is becoming common place in high end turntables.
More than that, when coupled with Vector Drive, our systems deliver “Perfect measurements”…Audio review March 2015.

Why is this?

Designing circuits for small AC motors is very straightforward.
That must surely be a good thing? Well it is.
There is, however, a flip side: The motors themselves. They Buzz…and there is NOTHING that can be done to get rid of that problem.
That’s a bad thing.

Good small DC motors are effectively the opposite of AC motors.
For a start they just don’t buzz; this makes them superb for turntables.
They are so good that they can be mounted directly on the sub-chassis and even something as sensitive as the stylus cannot detect their vibration.
This is something that you just can’t do with AC motors.

Achilles heel:

AC motors follow (lock to) the supply frequency which drives them.
DC motors have no such internal “lock”.
Left unchecked they can drift from the original setting. This can be for many reasons e.g. temperature.
The inclusion of a servo in the power supply design mitigates against this problem.
A good servo holds the motor speed without intrusion. A bad servo is either inaccurate or hunts or acts too severely.
Unfortunately good servos are not easy things to design.
Not surprising that manufacturers would rather take the easy option.

The original DC motor powered Pink Triangle turntable was launched in 1979. 40 years on and many are still performing well.
Clearly, a well-executed, brilliant decision right from the start.

The Funk Firm continues to develop and expound the virtues of DC motor systems and offers them as upgrades for other turntables.
There are two kits in the range. K-Drive and VX.

K-Drive is the flagship. A class A design with a unique single ended output. This gives it extremely low distortion and a low output impedance with which to control the motor.
Self-Vibration is imperceptible. It is the number one choice for sub-chassis-mounted-motor designs.

VX is a more cost effective alternative. It utilises elements of K-Drive in a more cost effective package.

Standard recommendations are:
For LP12 users. If your intentions are ultimately to upgrade to Ankhor / Charm, then go for K-Drive.
VX is not compatible with mounting on either of the two chassis.
It will then have to be sold on and a K-Drive purchased.

If funds are limited, then we would suggest the VX. Of course it too performs well with fine stability.

Together they can be used to upgrade many decks:
Linn, Ariston, Systemdeck, Source, ERA.

Unlike other manufacturer’s offerings, our units are not “universal” at the expense of performance. Mounts specific at the point of purchase enable optimum performance to be achieved in each application, facilitating fitting.